Techniques for effective study at undergraduate level

On reaching university, students are suddenly expected to become independent learners, responsible for evaluating their progress and knowing which areas to focus on, as well as organising their studies and effectively revising the content. This is a significant step up from GCSEs and even A Levels and leaves many students unsure about how to learn and how best to revise when they are at university.

This article will consider cognitive science and the fundamentals that underpin how we, as individuals, learn. It will consider a number of different effective revision techniques that will support higher quality and in-depth learning at undergraduate level.

The first key area to understand is the difference between learning and ‘performing’. At university, you want to ensure that you are learning information. However, you will often find that you are performing, not learning. So, what is the difference?

Performing means that, after you have been taught something new (such as a new theory or skill) you will be able to repeat it successfully. You may be able to repeat it successfully in a number of different circumstances, feeling confident that you have learnt it. However, at this point, you are unable to declare that you have learnt something. To have learnt information or a skill you need to be able to successfully recall and apply it several days, weeks and months later (Soderstrom and Bjork, 2015). In this example, you may be confident you have learnt a new skill, but if you have forgotten how to do it a week or two later, you didn't learn, you performed.